Elena Agafonova

Coach | Author | Career Pivot Guide 🌱

Letters of Change A weekly reflection on change, self-trust, and finding your way forward Begin where you are

Hello and welcome, Reader!

One of the hardest phases in any transition begins after the excitement of starting fades.

You’ve already invested a lot into the new direction.
You’ve learned.
Tried things.
Adjusted.
Spent emotional energy on it.

And yet, the external reality still feels uncertain.

• No clear breakthrough.
• No obvious confirmation that this path is truly working.
  Just effort, questions, and mixed signals.

I think this is the moment when many people quietly begin to doubt themselves.

Especially thoughtful people.

Because once we start moving toward something meaningful, we naturally hope reality will respond quickly enough to reassure us.

But often, it doesn’t.

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When the strategy doesn’t work

Recently, I found myself thinking about a book-writing coach who invited me, together with several other authors, into a campaign around midlife reinvention and transformation.

The idea itself was amazing: bringing together different perspectives for people who were no longer searching for quick reinvention, but trying to understand what kind of work still felt meaningful enough to commit to seriously.
The campaign looked professionally organized.
A lot of work had clearly gone into it.

And still, it didn’t work.

Later, she sent a message explaining that there were not enough participants to continue.

I remember reading it with a strange mixture of empathy and recognition.

Because this phase can feel deeply discouraging:
when you do many things right,
and reality remains silent.

I also thought about how easy it would be after an experience like this to quietly conclude:

“Maybe this idea doesn’t work.”
“Maybe people don’t need this.”
“Maybe I should stop.”

And sometimes, yes, stopping is the right decision.

But not always.

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The invisible years before recognition

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an interview with Virginia Evans, the author of an outstanding book,The Correspondent.

Before this novel found readers, she had already spent years writing books that remained mostly unseen.

The Correspondent was her eighth (!) completed novel.

What moved me most in this story was not the eventual success itself.

It was her willingness to continue for years without visible confirmation that her work would ever fully arrive where she hoped it would.

I think we often underestimate how emotionally difficult this phase really is.

Not the beginning.
The middle.

The period where effort exists long before recognition.

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Something readers have quietly shared

Over the last weeks, a few subscribers have written back to me sharing where they are in their own transitions.

What touched me was how similar many of the reflections sounded:

“I thought I would feel clearer by now.”

“I already started, but nothing is really happening yet.”

“I don’t know whether I should continue or let it go.”

I always read these reflections carefully, even when I cannot respond in depth right away.

And I suspect this uncertainty is much more universal than most people admit publicly.

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Slow progress is still movement

Of course, not every direction should continue forever.

Some things truly are misaligned.
Some experiments need to end.
Some paths are simply not ours.

But I’m also still learning that slow progress and wrong direction are not always the same thing.

Sometimes growth is quieter,
less linear,
and much less visible than we expected.

And the hardest part of change is maintaining emotional stability long enough to understand what our new beginnings will actually become.

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If you’d like, you can also explore where you are right now in your own transition process through the short reflection quiz below.

Continue the reflection.

See Where You Are

With care,

Elena